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National vigils to end refugee detention

Vigils calling for an end to Australia's offshore detention of refugees and asylum seekers have been held around the country as the policy reaches its fourth year.

A crowd of about 200 people gathered in Sydney's Hyde Park on Wednesday night calling for an evacuation of all offshore detention camps in one of more than 50 vigils around Australia organised by activist group GetUp.

"To the people on Manus and Nauru, we remember and we will not stop until every one of you is safe," GetUp human rights director Matthew Phillips told the crowd.

The crowd held candles, carried banners and waved plaques before taking a minutes silence for the six people who had died while being held at Nauru or Manus camps since the policy began.

With thousands of people gathered at vigils around Australia and outside embassies in Berlin, Manilla and London people could spur change, Amnesty International campaigner Ming Yu Hah told the crowd.

"There are humane alternatives, you know what, the only thing that is missing is political will," Ms Hah said.

For those who attended it was also a chance to raise awareness of the children who may have spent all their life in detention, Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children strategy group member Wendy Power told AAP.

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"These children deserve a future. They deserve all the services that our grandchildren have," Ms Power, a grandmother of four, said.

In 2013, former prime minister Kevin Rudd banned refugees who arrived by boat from being resettled in Australia, striking deals with the Papua New Guinea and Nauru governments to resettle refugees there.

The Manus Island centre in PNG is to close in late 2017, with plans to resettle people found to be genuine refugees under an agreement with the United States or in PNG itself. Others will be returned to their homelands.